Canals and inland waterways

Canals and inland

waterways, natural TABLE OF CONTENTS
or arti cial
Introduction
waterways used for
navigation, crop History
irrigation, water Modern waterway engineering
supply, or drainage.
Waterway systems
Canal along a street in Colmar, France.
© Avner Richard/Shutterstock.com
Despite modern
technological
advances in air and ground transportation, inland
waterways continue to ll a vital role and, in many
areas, to grow substantially. This article traces the
history of canal building from the earliest times to the
present day and describes both the constructional
and operational engineering techniques used and the
major inland waterways and networks throughout the
world.
The Oudegracht (Old Canal), Utrecht, The
Netherlands. Transport by inland waterways may be by navigable
© marc152d/Shutterstock.com rivers or those made navigable by canalization
(dredging and bank protection) or on arti cial
waterways called canals. Many inland waterways are multipurpose, providing drainage,
irrigation, water supply, and generation of hydroelectric power as well as navigation. The
lay of the land (topography) and particularly changes in water levels require that many
rivers be regulated to make them fully navigable, thus enabling vessels to proceed from
one water level to another. The chief regulating method is the lock, the development of
which contributed signi cantly to the Industrial Revolution and the development of
modern industrial society.

For many types of commodities, particularly such bulk commodities as grains, coal, and
ore, inland waterway transport is still more economical than any other kind of transport.
Thus, it is hardly surprising that modernized inland waterways, using the latest
navigational aids and traction methods and traversing the great landmasses of North
America, Europe, and Asia, play an increasingly important economic role.

History
Ancient works
Most of the improvement of rivers and construction of arti cial waterways in antiquity
was for irrigation purposes. In the 7th century BCE the Assyrian king Sennacherib built a
50-mile (80-km) stone-lined canal 66 feet (20 metres) wide to bring fresh water from
Bavian to Nineveh. The work, which included a stone aqueduct 300 yards (330 metres)
long, was constructed in one year and three months, according to a plaque that survives
on the site. Surprisingly advanced techniques were used, including a dam with sluice
gates allowing regulation of the ow of the water stored. The Phoenicians, Assyrians,
Sumerians, and Egyptians all constructed elaborate canal systems. The most spectacular
canal of this period was probably Nahrawān, 400 feet wide and 200 miles long, built to
provide a year-round navigation channel from near Sāmarrāʾ to Al-Kūt, using water
provided by damming the unevenly owing Tigris. Many elaborate canals are known to
have been built in Babylonia. In Egypt the Nile was dammed to control its oodwaters,
and an extensive system of basin irrigation was established. The Persian king Darius in the
5th century BCE cut a canal from the Nile River to the Red Sea. The Romans were
responsible for very extensive systems of river regulation and canals in France, Italy, the
Netherlands, and Great Britain for military transport. The legions in Gaul canalized one of
the mouths of the Rhône to protect their overseas supply route. In the 1st century CE the
Roman consul Marcus Livius Drusus dug a canal between the Rhine and Yssel to relieve
the Rhine of surplus water, and the Roman general Corbulo linked the Rhine and Meuse
with a canal 23 miles (37 km) long to avoid the stormy North Sea passage from Germany
to the coast. Attempting to reclaim the Fens in England, the Romans connected the River
Cam with the Ouse by an 8-mile canal, the Nene with the Witham by one 25 miles long,
and the Witham with the Trent by the Fosse Dyke (ditch), still in use.

Outside Europe and the Middle East, between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE,
the Chinese built impressive canals. Outstanding were the Ling Canal in Kuangsi, 90 miles
long from the Han capital; Changan (Sian) to the Huang He (Yellow River); and the Pien
Canal in Honan. Of later canals the most spectacular was the Grand Canal, the rst 600-
mile section of which was opened to navigation in 610. This waterway enabled grain to be
transported from the lower Yangtze and the Huai to Kaifeng and Luoyang. These canals
had easy gradients (changes in water levels); and at about three-mile intervals there were
single gates of stone or timber abutments with vertical grooves up or down along which
the log closure was manually hauled by ropes to hold or release the water, thus
controlling the water level. A few more elaborate gates had to be raised by windlasses.
Where water level changes were too great for such simple devices, double slipways were
built and vessels were hauled up the inclines.

Medieval revival
In Europe, canal building, which appears to have lapsed after the fall of the Roman
Empire, was revived by commercial expansion in the 12th century. River navigation was
considerably improved and arti cial waterways were developed with the construction of
stanches, or ash locks, in the weirs (dams) of water mills and at intervals along the
waterways. Such a lock could be opened suddenly, releasing a torrent that carried a vessel
over a shallow place. The commercially advanced and level Low Countries developed a
system of canals using the drainage of the marshland at the mouths of the Schelde,
Meuse, and Rhine; about 85 percent of medieval transport in the region went by inland
waterway.

Because shipping was handicapped where barges had to be towed over the weirs with
windlasses or manually, the lock and lock basin were evolved to raise boats from one level
to another. Although a primitive form of lock had been in operation as early as 1180 at
Damme, on the canal from Brugge to the sea, the rst example of the modern pound
lock, which impounded water, was probably that built at Vreeswijk, Netherlands, in 1373, at
the junction of the canal from Utrecht with the Lek River. Outer and inner gates
contained a basin, the water level of which was controlled by alternatively winding up and
lowering the gates. In the 15th century the lock-gate system was much improved with the
addition of paddles to control the ow of water in and out of the lock chamber through
sluices in the gates or sides of the lock.

Commercial needs soon encouraged canal construction in less ideal locations. The
Stecknitz Canal, built in Germany (1391–98), ran 21 miles from Lake Möllner down to
Lübeck, with a fall of 40 feet controlled with four stanches; the canal was later extended
south to Lauenburg on the Elbe to establish a link between the Baltic and the North Sea.
To deal with a fall from the summit to Lauenburg of 42 feet in 15 miles, two large locks
were built, each capable of holding 10 small barges.

Italy, the other principal commercial region of medieval Europe, also made important
contributions to waterway technology. The Naviglio Grande Canal was constructed (1179–
1209) with an intake on the Ticino River, a fall of 110 feet in 31 miles to Abbiategrasso and
Milan, the water level being controlled by sluices. To facilitate transport of marble from the
quarries for the building of the Milan cathedral, the canal was linked with an old moat,
and in Italy the rst pound lock with mitre instead of the earlier portcullis gates was
constructed to overcome differences in water level.

China may have been ahead of Europe in canal building. Between 1280 and 1293 the 700-
mile northern branch of the Grand Canal was built from Huai’an to Beijing. One section,
crossing the Shantung foothills, was in effect the rst summit-level canal, one that rises
then falls, as opposed to a lateral canal, which has a continuous fall only. The Huang He
(Yellow River) was linked with a group of lakes about 100 miles south, where the land rose
50 feet higher; and, to overcome water lost through operation of the lock gates, two small
rivers were partially diverted to ow into the summit level.

The 16th to 18th century

The development of the mitre lock, a double-leaf gate the closure of which formed an
angle pointing upstream, heralded a period of extensive canal construction during the
16th and 17th centuries. The canals and canalized rivers of that period foreshadowed the
European network to be developed over many years.

France
In France the Briare and Languedoc canals were built, the former linking the Loire and
Seine and the latter, also known as the Canal du Midi, linking Toulouse with the
Mediterranean. Both were remarkable feats of engineering. The Briare Canal (completed
1642) rose 128 feet to a plateau with a summit level 3.75 miles long and then dropped 266
feet to the Loing at Montargis. It included 40 locks, of which a unique feature was a
staircase of six locks to cope with the fall of 65 feet on the descent from the Loing to
Rogny. Construction of the 150-mile Canal du Midi joining the Bay of Biscay and the
Mediterranean via the Garonne and the Aude ran through very rugged terrain. Begun in
1666 and nished in 1692, it rose 206 feet in 32 miles from the Garonne at Toulouse to the
summit through 26 locks, and, after a three-mile stretch along the summit, then
descended 620 feet through 74 locks for 115 miles. Near Béziers a staircase of eight locks
was built, and six miles farther upstream a tunnel 180 yards long was constructed; three
major aqueducts carried it over rivers, and numerous streams were diverted beneath it in
culverts. The most notable technical achievement was a complex summit water supply
that included unique diversion of ows and storage provision.

Flanders
The canal system in Flanders included one from Brussels to Willebroeck on the Rupel to
1
shorten navigation by half, an 18 / -mile canal with four locks; another of 44 miles was
2
constructed from Brugge to Passchendaele, Nieuport, and Dunkirk and was later
extended to Ostend, while Dunkirk was linked with the Aa River, at the mouth of which a
large tide lock was constructed at Gravelines. The outstanding achievement in Flanders
was a lock at Boesinghe on the canal from Ypres to Boesinghe beside the Yser River. The
fall of 20 feet on this four-mile stretch was contained by a single large lock. Side ponds
with ground sluices were provided for the rst time to reduce the loss of water during the
lock’s operation. The ponds took one-third of the water when the lock was emptied and
returned it for the lling.

Germany
In Germany the 15-mile Friedrich Wilhelm Summit Canal, completed in 1669, rose from
Neuhaus on the Spree for 10 feet in two locks and from west of the summit fell 65 feet to
Brieskow on the Oder. An extensive system of waterways in this part of Germany was
nally established with the opening of the Plauer Canal in 1746, which ran from the Elbe
to the Havel. The 25-mile Finow Canal along the Havel to the Liepe, a tributary of the Oder,
had been built earlier but fell into decay because of ooding and neglect and was not
rebuilt until 1751. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, under the great elector of
Brandenburg and Frederick I of Prussia, the three great rivers, the Elbe, Oder, and Weser,
were linked by canal for commercial and political reasons, including the bypassing of tolls
charged by the numerous states and petty principalities of the Holy Roman Empire. In the
Low Countries, wars, political considerations, and the rivalry between the Dutch and
Belgian ports handicapped canal building. The Dutch, for example, strongly opposed a
Rhine-Meuse-Schelde canal, fearing diversion of trade to Antwerp.
 Great Britain
The rst lock was not built on an English canal until
the 16th century, and the canal era proper dates from
the construction of the Bridgewater Canal to carry
coal from Worsley to Manchester in the 18th century
by the engineer James Brindley. Opened for
navigation in 1761, it was extended to the Mersey in
The 2003 opening of the water bridge that 1776. Its success promoted a period of intense canal
connects the Elbe-Havel and Mittelland construction that established a network of inland
canals.
waterways serving the Industrial Revolution and
Jens Schlueter—AFP/Getty Images
contributing to Britain’s prosperity in the half-century
preceding the railway era, which began in the mid-
19th century. The Grand Trunk Canal established a cross-England route by linking the
Mersey to the Trent, opened up the Midlands, and provided water transport for exports to
European markets. There followed the link between the Thames and the Bristol Channel
provided by the Severn Canal and the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal from Sharpness
on the Severn to Gloucester. Birmingham’s growth and industrial prosperity were
stimulated because the city became the centre of a canal system that connected London,
the Bristol Channel, the Mersey, and the Humber. The Caledonian Ship Canal across
Scotland, joining the chain of freshwater lakes along the line of the Great Glen, was built
between 1803 and 1822.

One of the few canals to be built after the canal era was the 36-mile-long Manchester Ship
Canal, which was opened in 1894 to give oceangoing vessels access from the Mersey
estuary to Manchester.

Technological development
This spate of canal construction was accompanied by technological development in both
construction methods and operation. Locks, inclined planes, and lifts were developed to
cope with changes in water level. At Bingley, for example, on the Leeds and Liverpool
Canal, a lock staircase was built; and on the hilly areas at Ketley in Shropshire, inclined
planes were constructed in 1788 to haul tugboats from one level to another. The longest
plane, about 225 feet, was on the Hobbacott Down plane of the Bude Canal in Cornwall.
Vertical lifts counterweighted by water were also used; a set of seven was built on the
Grand Western Canal; while at Anderton in Cheshire a lift was later converted to electrical
power and was still operating in the 20th century. The most spectacular inclined plane
was built in the United States on the Morris Canal, which linked the Hudson and Delaware
rivers. For a rise of 900 feet to the Alleghenies watershed, 22 locks were installed at the
head of an inclined plane and, descending on a gradient of 1 in 10 to 1 in 12, ran down to
the pound below. Barges 79 feet long with loads up to 30 tons were hauled up by trolleys
running on rails, on which they settled as the lock emptied; the barges descended under
gravity into the lower pound to oat on an even keel when the water leveled off. In the
reverse direction, they were hauled up by a drum-and-cable mechanism.
The 19th century
Europe
In Europe, where the canal era had also started toward the end of the 17th century and
continued well into the 18th, France took the lead, integrating its national waterway
system further by forging the missing links. In the north the Saint-Quentin Canal, with a 3
1
/ -mile tunnel, opened in 1810, linking the North Sea and the Schelde and Lys systems
2
with the English Channel via the Somme and with Paris and Le Havre via the Oise and
Seine. In the interior the Canal du Centre connected the Loire at Digoin with the Sâone at
Chalon and completed the rst inland route from the English Channel to the
Mediterranean; the Sâone and Seine were linked farther north to give a more direct route
from Paris to Lyon; the Rhine-Rhône Canal, opened in 1834, provided a direct north-to-
south route; while the Sambre-Oise Canal linked the French canal system with the
Belgian network via the Meuse. Toward the end of the 19th century, France embarked on
the standardization of its canal system to facilitate through communication without
transshipment. The ultimate result was a doubling of traf c between the opening of the
century and World War II.

Industrial development in the early 19th century prompted Belgium to extend its inland
waterways, especially to carry coal from Mons and Charleroi to Paris and northern France.
Among the new canals and extensions built were the Mons-Condé and the Pommeroeul-
Antoing canals, which connected the Haine and the Schelde; the Sambre was canalized;
the Willebroek Canal was extended southward with the building of the Charleroi-Brussels
Canal in 1827; and somewhat later the Campine routes were opened to serve Antwerp and
connect the Meuse and Schelde. When the growth of the textile trade in Ghent created a
need for better water transport, the Gent Ship Canal, cut through to Terneuzen, was
opened in 1827, giving a shorter route to the sea. The Dutch extended their canals to serve
the continental European industrial north. The Maastricht-Liège Canal was opened in
1850, enabling raw materials and steel to be transported from the Meuse and Sambre
industrial areas by waterway throughout the Netherlands. In 1824 a long ship canal was
built to bypass silting that obstructed navigation on the IJsselmeer (Zuiderzee) and to
enter the North Sea in the Texel Roads. Later an even shorter ship canal was built to
IJmuiden.

In Scandinavia new canals were built to facilitate transport of timber and mineral
products. In 1832 the new Göta Canal was opened, crossing the country from the Baltic to
the Skagerrak and incorporating 63 locks. The political climate was less favourable for
canal building in central Europe, but the Ludwig Canal, forming part of the Rhine-Main-
Danube route, was opened in 1840. At the same time, steps were taken to improve river
navigation generally, to provide speedier transport, and to enable a greater volume of
freight to be carried. The Danube was regulated for 144 miles from Ennsmundung to
Theuben, and the Franz Canal was dug in Hungary to join the Danube and Tisza. A
nationwide Russian canal system connecting the Baltic and Caspian seas via the Neva
and Volga rivers became navigable in 1718. A more direct route was established in 1804
with a canal between the Beresina and Dvina rivers. In the 19th century Russia made
connections between the heads of navigation of its great rivers, the Volga, Dnepr, Don,
Dvina, and Ob.

An outstanding engineering achievement in Greece was the cutting of a deep ship canal
at sea level through the Isthmus of Corinth to connect the Aegean and Ionian seas. The
Roman emperor Nero had rst attempted this linking in the 1st century CE; the shafts
sunk by him were reopened and sunk to their full depth. The canal, about 3.9 miles long,
has a minimum depth of 26.2 feet and a minimum width of 68.9 feet at the bottom
increasing to 80.7 feet at surface level. Dug in 1881–93, it is bounded by almost vertical rock
cliffs that rise to more than 259 feet above water level in the canal’s midsection.

United States
In the United States, canal building began slowly; only 100 miles of canals had been built
at the beginning of the 19th century; but before the end of the century more than 4,000
miles were open to navigation. With wagon haulage dif cult, slow, and costly for bulk
commodities, water transport was the key to the opening up of the interior, but the way
was barred by the Allegheny Mountains. To overcome this obstacle, it was necessary to go
north by sea via the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes or south to the Gulf of Mexico
and the Mississippi. A third possibility was the linking of the Great Lakes with the Hudson
via the Mohawk Valley. The Erie Canal, 363 miles long with 82 locks from Albany on the
Hudson to Buffalo on Lake Erie, was built by the state of New York from 1817 to 1825.
Highly successful from the start, it opened up the Midwestern prairies, the produce of
which could ow eastward to New York, with manufactured goods making the return
journey westward, giving New York predominance over other Atlantic seaboard ports. The
Champlain Canal was opened in 1823; but not until 1843, with the completion of the
Chambly Canal, was access to the St. Lawrence made possible via the Richelieu River.
Meanwhile, Canada had constructed the Welland Canal linking Lakes Ontario and Erie.
Opened in 1829, it overcame the 327-foot difference in elevation with 40 locks, making
navigation possible to Lake Michigan and Chicago. Later the St. Mary’s Falls Canal
connected Lake Huron and Lake Superior. To provide a southern route around the
Allegheny Mountains, the Susquehanna and Ohio rivers were linked in 1834 by a 394-mile
canal between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. A unique feature of this route was the
combination of water and rail transport with a 37-mile portage by rail by ve inclined
planes rising 1,399 feet to the summit station 2,334 feet above sea level and then falling
1,150 feet to Johnstown on the far side of the mountains, where a 105-mile canal with 68
locks ran to Pittsburgh. By 1856 a series of canals linked this canal system to the Erie Canal.

Meanwhile, the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 had given the United States control of the
Mississippi River, and it became the main waterway for the movement of Midwestern
produce via New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. Developments included the Illinois-
Michigan Canal, connecting the two great water systems of the continent, the Great Lakes
and the Mississippi. Entering Lake Michigan at Chicago, then a mere village, the canal
triggered the city’s explosive growth. Several canals were constructed subsequently to link
up with the Erie and Welland canals and the St. Lawrence, and a comprehensive network
of inland waterways was established.

Impact of the railways

With the development of rail transport in the 19th century, canals declined as the
dominant carriers of freight, particularly in the United States and Britain. In continental
Europe the impact was less marked, because the great natural rivers already linked by
arti cial waterways constituted an international network providing transport
economically without transshipment; the terrain was more favourable and the canals
larger and less obstructed by locks. Elsewhere canals could not compete with rail. They
were limited both in the volume carried per unit and in speed; they were too small, too
slow, and fragmented; and the railways, as they became integrated into national systems,
provided a far more extensive service with greater exibility. The canals were further
handicapped because they were not, for the most part, common carriers themselves but
were largely dependent on intermediate carrying companies. Although transport on the
canals was for some time cheaper than rail, the railways gradually overcame this
advantage. To modernize and extend the waterways to enable larger boats to ply them, to
reduce the number of locks that slowed down movement, and to provide a more
comprehensive service all required capital investment on a scale that made the return
problematic. The railways exploited the dif culties of the canals by drastic rate cutting
that forced many canal companies to sell out to them. In Britain a third of the canals had
become railway-owned in the 1840s and ’50s, and many were subsequently closed down.
In the United States, half the canals were abandoned. The railways thus succeeded in
eliminating their competition and obtained a near monopoly of transport, which they
held until the arrival of the motor age.

Three great canals

The Kiel Canal
The 19th century saw the construction of the Kiel and Suez canals. The former carries
tonnage many times that of most other canals. Frequent attempts had been made to
make a route from the Baltic to the North Sea and thus to bypass the Kattegat and the
dangerous Skagerrak. The Vikings had portaged ships on rollers across the 10-mile Kiel
watershed, but not until 1784 was the Eider Canal constructed between the Gulf of Kiel
and the Eider Lakes. A little more than 100 years later, to accommodate the largest ships,
including those of the new German navy, the Kiel Canal was widened, deepened, and
straightened, cutting the distance from the English Channel to the Baltic by several
hundred miles. Running 59 miles from locks at Brunsbüttel on the North Sea to the
Holtenau locks on the Gulf of Kiel, the canal crosses easy country but has one unique
engineering feature. At Rendsburg, to give clearance to the largest ships, the railway was
made to spiral over the city on an ascending viaduct that crosses over itself before
running on to the main span above the water.
The Suez Canal
The Isthmus of Suez so obviously provided a short sea route from the Mediterranean to
the Indian Ocean and beyond as against the sea voyage around Africa that a canal was
dug in antiquity; it fell into disuse, was frequently restored, and nally was blocked about
the 8th century. Later there were many projects and surveys, but nothing happened until
1854, when Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had served as a diplomat for France in Egypt,
persuaded Saʿīd Pasha, the viceroy of Egypt, to grant a preliminary concession for
construction of a new canal across the isthmus. A later report recommended a sea-level
lockless canal between Suez and the Gulf of Pelusium; and the original concession was
superseded by one granted in 1856 to the Suez Canal Company, an international
consortium. The concession was to last for 99 years from the canal’s opening to
navigation, after which it was to revert to the Egyptian government; the canal was to be
an international waterway, open at all times to all ships without discrimination. In addition
to the ship canal, the company undertook to excavate a freshwater canal from the Nile at
Bûlâq to Ismailia, with a branch extending to the Suez, to be available for smaller ships.
Work on the ship canal lasted 10 years, during which time political, nancial, contractual,
and physical dif culties were overcome, and the canal was opened on November 17, 1869.
As ultimately constructed, it was a 105-mile lockless waterway connecting the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea. From its northern terminal at Port Said, the canal passes
through the salt marsh area of Lake Manzala, with the freshwater canal running parallel.
About 30 miles from Port Said, a seven-mile bypass built between 1949 and 1951 enables
convoys to pass. At about the halfway point the canal enters Lake Timsah and passes
Ismailia. Thence the waterway proceeds through the Bitter Lakes and on to Port Tawfīq,
the southern terminal on the Red Sea, a few miles from the town of Suez. Since its
construction, the canal has been constantly improved; originally 200 feet wide with a
maximum depth of 24 feet, it was widened in 1954 to 500 feet at water level and 196 feet
at a depth of 33 feet, with the main channel 45 feet deep, enabling ships of a maximum
draft of 37 feet to navigate the canal.

The canal remained open despite much political

controversy. Nationalized by Egypt in 1956, it was
blocked in 1967 after the Arab-Israeli War and
remained so until 1975.

The Panama Canal

Cargo ship in the Suez Canal near Ismailia,
Egypt.
Hubertus Kauns/SuperStock
After his success with the Suez Canal, de Lesseps was
attracted to the Isthmus of Panama, where many
projects had been suggested for cutting a canal to
join the Atlantic and Paci c oceans and thus make
unnecessary the passage around South America. De
Lesseps proposed a sea-level route via Lake
Nicaragua, but construction dif culties forced him to
abandon this project in favour of a high-level lock
canal via Panama. Further problems, especially yellow fever among the work force, halted
construction after about 78,000,000 cubic yards (60,000,000 cubic metres) of material
had been excavated. Meanwhile, U.S. interest had been actively maintained, but the
situation was complicated by political dif culties and questions of sovereignty. A treaty
between Britain and the United States recognized the exclusive U.S. right to construct,
regulate, and manage a canal across the isthmus; but Panama was Colombian territory,
and the Colombia Senate refused rati cation of a treaty with the United States. After a
revolt, a treaty was signed with independent Panama that granted the United States
exclusive use, occupation, and control of the Canal Zone in perpetuity.

Although preliminary work started in 1904, little real

progress was made because of disputes over the type
of canal that should be built; not until 1906 was the
high-level lock plan nally adopted, as opposed to the
previously favoured sea-level plan. Largely responsible
for this decision was John F. Stevens, who became
chief engineer and architect of the canal. Completed
Panama Canal: Miraflores Locks
in 1914, the canal is 51.2 miles long. At its start from the
The Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal.
large harbour area in Limon Bay on the Caribbean
Stan Shebs
Sea, it rises more than 80 feet above sea level to the
Gatun Lake through the Gatun Locks and is retained
at the north by these locks and dam and at the south by the Pedro Miguel Locks and
Dam. The waterway then runs through the Gaillard Cut, which channels it through the
Continental Divide, then between the Pedro Miguel Locks and the Mira ores Lake at an
elevation of 54 feet, ships to the Paci c Ocean being lowered by them to the Balboa
Harbor entrance. The Gatun Lake, with its area of 166 square miles, is an integral part of
the waterway and the principal source of its water. The minimum channel depth
throughout the length of the canal is 37 feet and its width 300 feet. There are 23 angles or
changes of direction between the entrances. Ships normally travel through the canal
under their own power except in the locks, through which they are towed by electric
locomotives.

Ernest Albert John Davies

Modern Waterway Engineering

Waterways are subject to de nite geographic and physical restrictions that in uence the
engineering problems of construction, maintenance, and operation.

The geographic restriction is that, unlike roads, railways, or pipelines, which are adaptable
to irregular natural features, waterways are con ned to moderate gradients; and where
these change direction, the summit pounds (ponds) require an adequate supply of water,
while valley pounds need facilities for disposal of surplus.
The primary physical restriction is that vessels cannot travel through water at speeds
possible for road vehicles or railway wagons. Because transport economics are based on
the transport unit (x tons moved y miles in 1 man-hour), waterways must provide larger
tonnage units than those possible on road or rail in order to be competitive.

Modern waterway engineering, therefore, is directed toward providing channels suitable

for larger vessels to travel faster by reducing delays at locks or from darkness and other
natural hazards. While such channels and associated works are designed to minimize
annual maintenance costs, the costs of operating vessels, locks, wharves, and other
waterway works can be minimized by increased mechanization.

Characteristics of basic types

Fundamentally, waterways fall into three categories, each with its particular problems:
natural rivers, canalized rivers, and arti cial canals.

On natural rivers navigation is subjected to seasonal stoppages from frost, drought, or

oods, all of which lead to channel movements and to the formation of shoals. While
minimizing natural hazards, attention is directed primarily to retaining the channel in a
predetermined course by stabilization of banks and bed, by elimination of side channels,
and by easing major bends to obtain a channel of uniform cross section that follows the
natural valley.

On canalized rivers navigation is facilitated by constructing locks that create a series of

steps, the length of which depends on the natural gradient of the valley and on the rise at
each lock. Associated with the locks for passing vessels, weirs and sluices are required for
passing surplus water; and in modern canalizations, such as the Rhône and the Rhine,
hydroelectric generation has introduced deep locks with longer arti cial approach
channels, which require bank protection against erosion and, in some strata, bed
protection against seepage losses.

On arti cial canals navigation can depart from natural river valleys and pass through hills
and watersheds, crossing over valleys and streams along an arti cial channel, the banks
and sometimes the bed of which need protection against erosion and seepage. The route
of an arti cial canal can be selected to provide faster travel on long level pounds
(stretches between locks), with necessary locks grouped either as a staircase with one
chamber leading directly to another or as a ight with short intervening pounds. Where
substantial differences of level arise or can be introduced, vertical lifts or inclined planes
can be constructed. Storage reservoirs must be provided to feed the summit pound with
enough water to meet lockage and evaporation losses; other reservoirs can be introduced
at lower levels to meet heavier traf c movements entailing more frequent lockage
operation. If supplies are insuf cient to offset the losses, pumps may be needed to return
water from lower to upper levels.

Channels
Channel design
Natural rivers and canalized rivers away from arti cial cuts need no protection against
seepage and only light protection of banks against erosion. The widening or cutting off of
major bends assists navigation, but wholesale straightening is undesirable because the
natural sinuosity of the river, though modi ed, should be retained. Local widening is
effected by dragline excavators cutting into the channel and dumping the material
ashore, where it is either used to form levees or removed elsewhere. Deepening or
widening beyond the reach of shore-based excavators requires a oating plant that
discharges to hopper barges for transport to a disposal point or to pipelines for pumping
ashore.

Arti cial canals should provide a waterway with a cross-sectional area at least ve, and
preferably seven, times the cross-sectional area of the loaded vessel. In rock cuttings, such
as those of the Corinth Canal, the waterway cross section could be rectangular, but the
normal cross section is trapezoidal, with bed width three to four times, and surface width
six to eight times, the width of the vessel, while the depth must be enough to allow the
water displaced by the moving vessel to ow back under the hull.

Channel construction
The physical construction of a canal has been facilitated by the development of very large
mechanical excavators. Walking draglines with 20-ton buckets, such as were used on the
St. Lawrence Seaway, are more suitable for quarry or opencut coal workings; for general
channel construction the more versatile tracked machines are preferred. Scrapers and
dumper trucks with oversize pneumatic tires for fast travel over rough ground readily
dispose of excavated materials to form embankments or other ll.

Water losses by percolation through bed or banks must be prevented on embankments

and wherever permeable strata are encountered. While the watertight skin was originally
obtained by a layer of puddled clay with protective gravel covering, other materials later
became available, such as y ash from power stations, sometimes with a cement
admixture; bentonite; bituminous materials; sheet polythene; or concrete.

Bridges, aqueducts, and tunnels for waterways

Canals must frequently cross over or under roads and railways, rivers, and other canals.
These crossings are made by a variety of bridges, sometimes carrying the road or railroad,
sometimes carrying the canal. Most are xed, though movable bridges are also used. On
the Weaver River in England, four movable bridges, carrying main roads across the
waterway, swing on pontoons.

Canals originally crossed valleys on heavy masonry structures supporting the full
formation, including puddled clay lining. Cast-iron anged and bolted troughs later
provided a lighter and watertight channel; current practice uses concrete with
bituminous sealing.
Canals were originally carried through hills and watersheds in small bricked tunnels
through which vessels were propelled by manual haulage, by poling, or by legging—that
is, by crewmen lying on their backs on the cabin and pushing with their feet against the
tunnel roof. Later, tunnels were provided with towpaths.

Bank protection
On natural or canalized rivers of relatively large cross section, bank erosion can be
checked by rubble roughly tipped or by natural growth such as reeds or willows.

On arti cial canals of smaller dimensions, where passing vessels create a serious wash,
some revetment (bank protection) is essential. Sloping banks are readily protected by
close-laid stone pitching, by bundles formed of interwoven willow branches, or by
bituminous carpet; more permanent protection is provided by steel or concrete piles,
which are close-driven, overlapping or interlocked, and protected against impact damage
by horizontal fendering above the waterline and by roughly tipped rubble below the
waterline. In cuttings the slopes are stabilized by berms (level strips) 6 to 10 feet wide at
intervals determined by the nature of the soil. On long embankments safety stop gates
can minimize water losses in the event of a breach.

Towpaths
Originally provided for animal haulage, towpaths were adapted on many French canals for
mechanical and electrical haulage until the general use of powered craft terminated this
service in 1969. But the towpaths are still useful; in addition to providing ways for some
local haulage by mechanical tractor, they provide valuable access to the canals for
inspection and maintenance.

Locks
On canalized rivers and arti cial canals, the waterway consists of a series of level steps
formed by impounding barriers through which vessels pass by a navigation lock. Basically,
this device consists of a rectangular chamber with xed sides, movable ends, and facilities
for lling and emptying: when a lock is lled to the level of the upper pound, the
upstream gates are opened for vessels to pass; after closing the upstream gates, water is
drawn out until the lock level is again even with the lower pound, and the downstream
gates are opened. Filling or emptying of the chamber is effected by manually or
mechanically operated sluices. In small canals these may be on the gates, but on larger
canals they are on culverts incorporated in the lock structure, with openings into the
chamber through the sidewalls or oor. While the sizes of the culverts and openings
govern the speed of lling or emptying the chamber, the number and location of the
openings determine the extent of the water disturbance in the chamber: the design must
be directed toward obtaining a maximum speed of operation with minimum turbulence.
The dimensions of the chamber are determined by the size of vessels using, or likely to
use, the waterway. Where the traf c is dense, duplicate or multiple chambers may be
required; in long chambers intermediate gates allow individual vessels to be passed.
Lock dimensions vary from the small, narrow canal locks of England, with chambers 72
feet long and 7 feet wide, to the 1,500-ton capacity waterways of Europe, with chambers
650 by 40 feet. On the St. Lawrence Seaway the dimensions are approximately 800 by 80
feet; on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, where push-towing units are operating, the
dimensions rise to 1,200 by 110 feet.

On canalized rivers the present trend is for locks to be deeper, particularly where they
form an integral part of a hydroelectric dam. On the Rhône the lock at Donzère-
Mondragon has a depth of 80 feet; in Portugal, where the Douro was being developed in
the early 1970s for power and navigation, the Carrapatelo Lock has a depth of 114 feet.

On arti cial canals, where conservation of water is essential, depths do not normally
exceed 20 feet: water consumption can be reduced by the provision of side pounds either
adjacent to the lock, as at Bamberg on the Rhine-Main-Danube waterway, or incorporated
in the lock walls, as in the (1899) Henrichenburg Lock on the Dortmund-Ems Canal.

Locks are located to provide good approach channels free from restrictions on sight or
movement. Where traf c is heavy or push tows operate, adequate approach walls are
needed both to accommodate vessels awaiting entry and to provide shelter from river
currents while vessels move slowly into or out of the lock.

Lock gates
Movable gates must be strong enough to withstand the water pressure arising from the
level difference between adjacent pounds. The most generally used are mitre gates
consisting of two leaves, the combined lengths of which exceed the lock width by about
10 percent. When opened, the leaves are housed in lock wall recesses; when closed, after
turning through about 60°, they meet on the lock axis in a V shape with its point
upstream. Mitre gates can be operated only after water levels on each side have been
equalized.

On small canals gates may be manually operated by a lever arm extending over the lock
side; on large canals hydraulic, mechanical, or electrical power is used. On the Weaver
Navigations Canal in England the hydraulic power for operating the lock gates has been
derived for 100 years from the 10-foot head difference between the pounds.

Vertical gates, counterweighted and lifted by winch or other gearing mounted on an

overhead gantry, can operate against water pressure; as the gate leaves the sill, water
enters the chamber, supplementing or replacing the culvert supply. The turbulence is
more dif cult to control, and the overhead gantries impose restrictions on masts and
other superstructures of a vessel.

The use of sector gates, which turn into recesses in the wall, depends on the physical
characteristics of the site and on the traf c using the waterway; falling gates lower into
recesses in the forebay, and rolling gates run on rails into deep recesses in the lock walls.
Lock equipment
Ladders recessed into the walls provide access between vessels and the lockside and are
vital in case of accidents.

Bollards (mooring posts) on the lockside are used for holding vessels steady by ropes
against the turbulence during lock operation; mooring hooks set in recesses in the walls
provide an alternative anchorage against surging. Floating bollards are provided in deep
locks; retained in wall recesses, they rise or fall with the vessel, obviating the need for
continuous adjustment of the ropes. Signals, physical or visual, erected at each end of the
lock indicate to approaching craft whether the lock is free for them to enter and, in the
multiple-chamber locks, which chamber they should use. Control cabins, centrally
situated, enable all operations of the lock gates, sluices, and signals to be carried out by
one person from a push-button control panel. Telephone or radio communication
between adjacent locks gives advance information enabling the operator to have a lock
prepared in anticipation of a vessel’s arrival. Experiments in France in the early 1970s were
directed toward the automatic passage of a vessel through a ight of locks, the various
operations at each lock, once initiated, continuing automatically until the vessel left.

Lock bypasses
The passage of a small pleasure boat through a deep lock is an expensive operation if it is
passed alone and can be hazardous if it is passed with large barges that might surge
against it. Canoes are normally brought ashore and manually moved around a lock on a
portable trolley; larger pleasure craft can be transported on a cradle that is mechanically
towed on a lockside rail track.

Water chutes have been introduced in Germany for canoes and rowboats where there are
rises of 30 to 80 feet; although more costly to install than a lockside rail track, they are
more popular. The canoeist, entering the approach channel, pushes a button actuating
the head gates, which rise to allow the water to carry the canoe into and down the chute,
where it is kept in the centre of the chute by guide vanes. For upstream passage, canoes
are kept a oat by descending water but require manual towage.

Boat lifts
Vessels can be transported oating in a steel tank or caisson between adjacent pounds by
a vertical lift, replacing several locks. Vertical lifts can be operated by high-pressure
hydraulic rams, by submersible oats, or by geared counterweights. Hydraulic lifts with
twin caissons were constructed in 1875 at Anderton, Eng., with a 50-foot lift for 60-ton
vessels; in 1888 lifts were constructed at Les Fontinettes, Fr., for 300-ton vessels and at La
Louvière, Belg., for 400-ton vessels. Similar hydraulic lift locks were constructed at Kirk eld
and Peterborough in Ontario, Can.; the latter, completed in 1904, has a lift of nearly 65 feet.
Float lifts were constructed in 1899 at Henrichenburg, Ger., with a 46-foot lift for 600-ton
vessels; in 1938 at Magdeburg, Ger., with a 60-foot lift for 1,000-ton vessels; and in 1962 a lift
at Henrichenburg for 1,350-ton vessels.
Counterweighted lifts were introduced in 1908 when the Anderton lift was reconstructed.
Each caisson was separately counterbalanced by a series of weights and ropes with
electrically driven gearing. This method was used in 1932 at Nieder now, Ger., with a 117-
foot lift for 1,000-ton vessels.

Inclined planes
In the 18th century, inclined planes were constructed to transport small boats on trucks
between adjacent pounds, using animal power and gravity and, later, steam. A series of
planes was built in the United States on the canal between the Delaware and Hudson
rivers to transport 80-ton vessels in caissons; a similar plane for 60-ton vessels was built at
Foxton, Eng., to bypass 10 locks.

Three planes have been constructed in Europe, at Ronquières, Belg., for 1,350-ton vessels;
at Saint-Louis-Arzviller, Fr., for 300-ton vessels; and at Krasnoyarsk, Russia, for 1,500-ton
vessels. At Ronquières and Krasnoyarsk, vessels are carried longitudinally up relatively
gentle inclines with gradients of 1 in 21 and 1 in 12, respectively, while at Arzviller the site
1
permitted only a steep gradient of 1 in 2 / , necessitating vessels being moved transversely.
2
At Ronquières the plane rises 220 feet and replaces 17 locks; at Arzviller the rise is 150 feet,
and here, too, 17 locks have been replaced. At Krasnoyarsk the plane rises 330 feet from
the downstream water level of the Yenisey River to surmount the hydroelectric dam; on
top of the dam the caisson moves on to a turntable, where it is rotated through 38° before
passing to a second plane running down to the water level impounded upstream of the
dam.

Inland waterway craft

While early navigation of natural rivers was dependent on the use of sail for upstream
operation, towpaths and animal haulage were provided when rivers were canalized and
arti cial canals constructed. Later, mechanical haulage was developed and is still used for
local movement of unpowered craft.

Steam, and later diesel, tugs improved speed of travel, particularly where lakes or estuarial
lengths were encountered. Powered barges, towing one or more unpowered (dumb)
barges, were introduced on rivers with adequate lock chambers; but on arti cial canals
double (or treble) lockage operations made this method uneconomical; and, except for
local lighterage (loading, transporting, and unloading) or maintenance duties, dumb
barges are little used on arti cial canals.

To meet competition from road haulage, with its greater exibility and higher speeds,
water transport must nd its solution in its capacity for larger units, thus necessitating the
enlargement of channels and locks. Consequently, the 300-ton barges operating
economically early in this century have been replaced by craft as large as 1,350 tons and
more.
In North America, transport operators grouped dumb barges into assemblies, lashing
them on either side or ahead of a power unit with similar barges secured in rows ahead.
These assemblies of unpowered and individually unmanned barges are known,
somewhat illogically, as push tows, and the power unit as a push tug. While these
assemblies operate most advantageously on natural rivers, their development has
justi ed heavy capital expenditure for enlarging lock chambers on some canalized rivers
to avoid delays and increased operational costs arising from multiple lockage. In Europe,
push tows normally operate with fewer than six barges, but on the Mississippi, with its
deep channel and 700 miles without a lock, a push tow may aggregate 40,000 tons, an
assembly of 40 barges being controlled by one 9,000-horsepower push tug, with cabins
and facilities for 24-hour operation. On the Ohio River the original 600-foot lock chambers
were lengthened to 1,200 feet to obviate double lockage.

Movement of push tows around bends, as on the Moselle River, is facilitated by portable
power units attached to the bows and operated as required. Similar units can be attached
to individual barges for transfer from push tow to wharf or vice versa; they can also be
used for handling dumb barges in docks and for moving hopper barges short distances
from dredger to disposal site.

Waterway maintenance
Inspection vessels, self-propelled and equipped with echo-sounding appliances, are
necessary for regular survey of the waterway. On natural and canalized rivers, which are
subject to droughts and oods, attention is particularly directed to the location of the
navigable channel: transverse soundings reveal channel movements and enable marker
buoys or perches to be relocated and shoals removed by dredging; longitudinal echo-
sounding readings normally suf ce to locate shallow lengths on arti cial canals.

The dredging plant is an expensive item of waterway maintenance. Bucket dredgers for
major operations are supplemented by suction, or grab, dredgers for localized work;
hopper barges are required for transporting dredged materials to disposal sites, which
should be numerous enough to minimize the transporting period, so that the dredger
remains fully operational with a minimum of hopper barges and towage units.

Bank revetment requires special vessels for carrying piling frames and light lifting tackle;
other service craft are needed for concrete mixing and general duty.

Lock gate renewal is normally planned to ensure that a predetermined number of gates
are replaced annually; special vessels equipped with heavy lifting tackle are needed for
transport and site handling.

Divers carry out underwater inspections and repairs; although scuba-type diving has been
developed for some underwater operations, helmet diving is still needed for prolonged
work. Both types of diving require special craft with specialized crew and equipment for
servicing the divers. Salvage craft equipped with pumps and heavy-lifting tackle are used
for removing obstructions from the channel or for raising sunken vessels. Tugs handle the
service vessels because many are used only intermittently, and thus power units are not
economical. Dry docks or slipways, workshops, tting shops, welding bays, and other
special facilities, usually grouped in the vicinity of the administration of ces, are part of
every modern canal-maintenance system.

Christopher Marriage Marsh

Waterway Systems
Administration
Modern inland waterway development has been largely carried out by governments, in
contrast to early canal construction, which was mainly undertaken by private enterprise.
Most of the older canals were subsequently acquired by the state and are administered by
them or their agencies and are subject to comprehensive regulation, frequently by
independent commissions. International commissions representing the states concerned
regulate navigation on the international waterways. In the United States the waterways
are basically a federal responsibility, with their development undertaken by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, but state governments and local authorities also participate in the
administration of many local waterways. The Interstate Commerce Commission has
responsibility for the regulation of the common carriers and requires them to publish
their rates. For some major multipurpose projects, public corporations were established to
undertake and administer them.

In Europe and the former Soviet Union the national networks, mainly based on navigable
and canalized rivers linked by canal, were developed by the governments, which retained
responsibility for nance and administration. In Britain most canals were brought under
government ownership beginning Jan. 1, 1948, and are administered by the British
Waterways Board.

Europe’s main waterways have long been accepted as international waterways with
navigation free to all vessels and equality of treatment of all ags guaranteed. The chief
regulatory commissions are the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine, the
Danube Commission, and the commission for the canalized Moselle. There are also a
number of bilateral agreements between states. Wars and political considerations
following them have from time to time interrupted the freedom of navigation. A
provisional Rhine Commission was operating in the early 1970s; a new Danube
Commission was established in 1953 after the signing of the Austrian state treaty, when
freedom of navigation throughout the river’s length was fully restored. With the creation
of a number of international organizations in Europe, a high degree of cooperation
between states for the development of the inland waterways and the regulation of
navigation was achieved, particularly through the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe, the European Economic Community, the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, and the Council of Europe.
In North America a U.S.-Canadian International Joint Commission has functioned since
1909 with general authority over the boundary waters. The St. Lawrence Seaway is a joint
project, administered by the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority in Canada and the St.
Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation in the United States.

The Panama Canal was originally administered under the Panama Canal Convention of
1903 by the United States, under the supervision of the army. Panama-U.S. relations were
frequently strained, and in 1964 the United States agreed to negotiate new treaties
concerning the existing canal and construction of a new canal at sea level. Later both
countries agreed to a new treaty recognizing Panama’s sovereignty over the Canal Zone.

The international status of the Suez Canal, constructed and administered by the Suez
Canal Company, has frequently been a matter for dispute, peaceful and otherwise. Only in
1904, under an Anglo-French agreement, was the Constantinople Convention of 1888,
establishing the Suez Canal as an international waterway open to all in war and peace,
nally implemented. In 1956 British presence in the area ended, and troops were
withdrawn from the canal zone; the Egyptian government nationalized the assets of the
canal company and the administration was assumed by Egypt, but the 1967 war closed
the canal until 1975.

Major inland waterways of Europe

After the end of World War II, the growth of transport by inland waterway in Europe,
coordinated by the various international authorities, resulted in an enlarged and
integrated network brought up to a minimum common standard for craft of 1,350 tons.
With the Rhine, the Moselle, and their tributaries dominating the German system and
providing outlets for the Dutch and Belgian systems and connecting with the French
network, main improvements were concentrated on the international Main-Danube Canal
and on improving the north-south route of the Nord-Sud Canal (or Elbe-Seitenkanal). The
latter canal (completed in 1976) leaves the Elbe about 20 miles above Hamburg and,
1
running south, joins the Mittelland Canal near Wolfsburg, Ger., reaching a total of 71 /
2
miles and shortening the route between Hamburg and the Ruhr by 134 miles.

The Main-Danube waterway connecting the Rhine with the Black Sea was completed in
1992 and provides a route for traf c between eastern and western Europe through
Germany, accommodating craft of 1,350 tons throughout its length. Following the Main
River to Bamberg in Germany, the route proceeds by arti cial waterway, including a
section of the Regnitz Canal to Dietfurt, thence by the Altmühl River to a point below
Kelheim, where it joins with the Danube, crossing the Austrian border at Jochenstein. The
44-mile Bamberg-to-Nürnberg canal section, completed in 1972, includes seven locks
with a combined lift of 268 feet. All locks are 623 feet long and able to accommodate
vessels of 1,500 tons. Improvements of the channel of the German Danube, begun in 1965,
include a pair of locks at Kachlet, just above Passau. In Austria four pairs of locks to take
1,350-ton craft have been built.

Viewing platform on a lock in the Main-
Danube Canal, Germany.
Travel Ink/Gallo Images/Getty Images
The damming of the Danube at Ðerdap (1970–72), the
Iron Gate rapids, on the border between Serbia and
Romania, was undertaken in conjunction with the
improvement of navigation through these dangerous
waters; it incorporates vast hydroelectric power plants.
Two locks, 1,017 feet long and 112 feet wide, with two
chambers each, are being built to facilitate passage
through the Iron Gate. Journey time for ships
traveling from Black Sea ports upstream to Belgrade,
Vienna, and central Europe will be reduced from
approximately 100 to 15 hours by this project, and
traf c is expected to rise from the present 12 million
tons annually to 50 million tons.

France’s waterway network of nearly 5,000 miles is

based primarily on its rivers, but many of the low-capacity canals are being raised to the
1,350-ton standard. A major development planned in the 1970s in cooperation with West
Germany was the construction to this standard of the North Sea–Mediterranean waterway
via the canalized Rhône and Rhine rivers. With four existing locks built for the Grand Canal
d’Alsace, a projected lateral canal between Huningue and Strasbourg, the project was
modi ed in 1956, and the four remaining dams were to be built on the Rhine itself and
bypassed with short canals including four locks, three with two chambers each.
Canalization of the Rhône started with the building of the Port of Edouard-Herriot
downstream from Lyon, and work proceeded on 12 locks and dams. Two new ports,
serving Valence and Montélimar, were being constructed. Improvements were also made
on the Marne-Rhine waterway, which provides an important internal trade route
connecting the Paris Basin with the industrial regions of Alsace-Lorraine. The
improvements included major works on either side of the Vosges summit level, replacing
1
23 old locks. At Réchicourt a new lock with a lift of 32 / feet bypasses six locks and a
2
winding section of the old canal; on the other side of the summit a new canal section
bypasses 17 locks, which formerly required 8 to 12 hours to navigate. On this section the
inclined plane of Saint-Louis-Arzviller deals with a difference in level of 146 feet with a
horizontal length of 422 feet. Two tanks each carry a 350-ton barge. Their 32 wheels run on
four rails, and two sets of 14 cables connect the tanks to the two concrete counterweights.
Improvements have been made to routes connecting the Seine with the north and east.
The Canal du Nord was completed in 1965, and a bottleneck was removed on the Oise
Lateral Canal with the building of two locks to accommodate through convoys to Paris.

In the Netherlands the extensive canal system based on large natural rivers and serving
the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam has required comparatively little modernization;
but to avoid the Maas (Meuse) River, between Roermond and Maastricht, the Juliana
Canal was built in 1935 and improved after World War II. The Twente Canal, opened in 1936,
improved communication with the industrial east. Most important of the postwar projects

Grand Canal d'Alsace at Breisach, Ger.
Norbert Blau
Dom Tower overlooking the Oudegracht (Old
Canal), Utrecht, The Netherlands.
© Gertjan Hooijer/Shutterstock.com
was the building of the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal to
enhance the capital’s value as a transshipment port.
The Noord-Hollandsch Canal from Amsterdam to Den
Helder was constructed, and the IJsselmeer was
linked with the Ems estuary across the north of
Holland. To shorten the distance between Rotterdam
and Antwerp by 25 miles, the Schelde-Rhine Canal
has been built.
Italy’s waterway system, based on the Po Valley, is cut
off from the European network by the Alps, but it is
also being brought up to higher standards.
In Scandinavia there are two major commercial
arti cial waterways: the rst, the Trollhätte Canal,
connects the Götaälv (river) upward from Göteborg
with Lake Vänern and with the Finnish lakes and
connecting canals; the second, the Saimaa Canal, in
southeast Finland, connecting the vast Saimaa Lake
system to the sea, was being reconstructed at the
time of World War II. After the Soviet-Finnish War, part
was ceded to the Soviet Union; but in 1963 it was
leased back to Finland, modernization continued, and
the canal, with eight large locks replacing the
previous 28, was reopened in 1968.
In the Soviet Union, water navigation played a major
role in the country’s economy; and after World War I
its great rivers—the Dnepr, Dvina, Don, Vistula, and
Volga—were linked to form an extensive network,
making through navigation possible from the Baltic
to both the Black Sea and the Caspian. The Black Sea
and the Baltic are connected by three different
systems, of which the most important is the link
between the Dnepr and the Bug, a tributary of the
Vistula, by way of the Pripyat and Pina rivers, a 127-
mile canal connecting with the Mukhavets River, a
tributary of the western Bug. This system is the sole
wholly inland waterway connection between western
Europe and the Soviet systems, giving through access
to the Caspian and Black seas. When the Rhine-
Danube and Oder-Danube canals are completed, a
second route will be provided, via the Berezina River, a
tributary of the Dnepr, the Viliya, a tributary of the

Amsterdam-Rhine Canal.
© Devi/Shutterstock.com
Yenisey in Siberia are connected by canal, and the Karakumsky Kanal has been built from
Kerki on the Amu Darya and is being continued westward to the Caspian.
Niemen, and a 13-mile canal through Latvia to Riga.
The last link reaches the Baltic through Lithuania and
Poland from the Dnepr by way of the Szara, a
tributary of the Niemen; the Jasiolda, a tributary of
the Pripyat; and a 34-mile canal. Other important
links are the Volga-Don Canal, 63 miles long and
completed in 1952, and the Moscow-Volga Canal, built
between 1932 and 1937, which ows 80 miles from the
Volga to the Moskva River at Moscow. The White Sea–
Baltic Canal, built in 1931–33, runs from Belomorsk on
the White Sea through the canalized Vyg River across
Lake Vyg and through a short canal to Povenets at
the northern end of Lake Onega, through which it
passes to the canalized Svir River, Lake Ladoga, and
the Neva River to the southern terminal at Leningrad.
The total length of the system is 140 miles, reducing
sea passage between Leningrad and Arkhangelsk by
2,400 miles; through its 19 locks it rises to 335 feet
above sea level. In the Soviet Union the Ob and

Major inland waterways of North

America
The U.S. and Canadian networks of inland waterways
are based on the great navigable rivers of the
continent linked by several major canals. Additionally,
to reduce the hazards of navigating the Atlantic
seaboard and to shorten distances, intracoastal
waterways (protected routes paralleling the coast)
have been developed. The total inland U.S. system,
including protected coastal routes, approximates
25,000 miles, of which well over half has a minimum
depth of nine feet. The largest system is based on the
Mississippi, which is navigable for about 1,800 miles
Barge on the Volga-Don Canal, Russia. from New Orleans to Minneapolis, and its vast system
© Alexander Chelmodeev/Shutterstock.com of tributaries. This system connects with the St.
Lawrence Seaway via Lake Michigan, the Chicago
Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Illinois River and with the Atlantic coast via the New York
State Barge Canal (Erie Canal) and the Hudson River. The two intracoastal waterways are
the Atlantic and the Gulf, the former extending from Boston, Mass., to Key West, Fla., with
many sections in tidal water or in open sea. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway comprises
large sheltered channels running along the coast and intersected by many rivers giving
access to ports a short distance inland. New Orleans is reached by the Tidewater Ship
Canal, a more direct and safer waterway than the Mississippi delta. The Paci c coast
canals are not linked with the national network, but two major projects of importance are
the Sacramento Deepwater Ship Canal and the Columbia River development, which will
provide more than 500 miles of navigable river from the Paci c to Lewiston, Idaho.

The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 saw the ful llment of a project that had
been envisaged from the times of the earliest settlements in Canada. A continuous,
navigable, deep waterway from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes was the obvious route for
opening up the interior of North America; but natural obstacles, such as the Lachine
Rapids north of Montreal, had prevented its realization. The completion of such a
waterway required agreement between the United States and Canada, which was dif cult
to achieve. In 1912 the Canadian government decided to improve the Welland Canal to
provide a 27-foot depth with locks 800 feet long and 80 feet wide; but because of World
War I it was not completed until 1932. Although a joint project to include hydroelectric
power development on the International Rapids section had been provisionally agreed
upon, nal agreement between Canada and the United States was not reached until the
early 1950s. The Canadian government undertook to raise the standard of the waterway to
a 27-foot navigation depth between Montreal and Lake Erie, and the United States agreed
to carry out other works, including the bypassing by canal and locks of the Barnhart
Island–Cornwall generating dam at the foot of the Long Sault Rapids. This agreement
enabled work on the seaway to begin in 1954. The resultant deep waterway, navigable by
oceangoing ships, extends about 2,300 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the head of the
Great Lakes in the heart of North America.

After Montreal Harbour the rst lock is the St. Lambert, which rises 15 feet to the Laprairie
Basin and proceeds 8.5 miles to the second Côte Ste. Catherine Lock, which rises 30 feet to
Lake St. Louis and bypasses the Lachine Rapids. Thereafter, the channel runs to the lower
Beauharnois Lock, which rises 41 feet to the level of Lake St. Francis via a 13-mile canal.
Thirty miles farther, the seaway crosses the international boundary to the Bertrand H.
Snell Lock, with its lift of 45 feet to the Wiley-Dondero Canal; it then lifts another 38 feet by
the Dwight D. Eisenhower Lock into Lake St. Lawrence. Leaving the western end of the
lake, the seaway bypasses the Iroquois Control Dam and proceeds through the Thousand
Islands to Lake Ontario.

Eight locks raise the water 326 feet over 28 miles from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. The St.
Marys Falls Canal, with a lift of about 20 feet, carries the waterway to Lake Superior, where
the seaway terminates.

Economic signi cance

Despite the large capital investment required to modernize existing inland waterway
systems and for new construction, water transport has demonstrated competitive
strength as a carrier for commodities in the movement of which the time factor is not of
prime importance, such as minerals, timber, and many agricultural products. In the same
way as the canals of the 19th century contributed to the development of the Midwest in
the United States, the St. Lawrence Seaway has led to an expansion of industrial activity
on the regions bordering the Great Lakes. Economic expansion along North America’s
rivers has followed capital investment in improvement of navigation along them. In the
Soviet Union, similar development of vast areas was made possible by linking the major
rivers to provide through routes.

In continental Europe the eight member countries of the Conference of European

Ministers of Transport (ECMT) experienced a growth in total tons carried by inland
waterways from 385 million tons to 472 million tons in the years 1964–68. Whereas in 1938
Germany carried 90 million tons of freight on its inland waterways, by the end of the 1960s
the Federal Republic of Germany alone was carrying over 230 million tons a year; East
Germany was carrying an additional 12 million tons. Nor was this increase limited to the
earlier years of the decade, as is shown by the volume of goods passing along the Rhine,
which rose from 187 million tons in 1963 to 265 million tons in 1969. Most European
countries had the same experience: the Soviet Union, which carried over its 233,000 miles
of navigable waterways 239.5 million tons in 1963, transported 322.7 million tons in 1969.

It is dif cult to judge the economics of water transport compared with other transport
forms because of the different operating systems. On most international rivers, for
example, there are no navigational charges; but tolls are charged on most national
arti cial waterways. Costs of water transport are therefore mainly operating costs, which
are considerably lower than the total costs of movement by other transport modes. This
situation partly accounts for the fact that in the 1950s and ’60s in the United States, costs
per ton-mile stayed practically the same or fell slightly. Mergers of carrier companies and
technological developments also contributed to price stability.

It has been calculated that in the Federal Republic of Germany one horsepower could
move 330 pounds (150 kilograms) by road, 1,100 pounds by rail, and 8,800 pounds by
inland waterway. Water-transport cost was said to be one-sixth the cost of transport by
road and two-thirds the cost of transport by rail. Other transport carriers contend that
such comparisons are not valid, because public investment in permanent structures (i.e.,
canals and locks) is not always taken into account, whereas for railways private investment
in right-of-way costs is re ected in carrying charges. Nor has the inland waterway industry
been without its dif culties. In Europe in the 1960s, for example, a surplus of carrying craft
adversely affected pro ts, although by the 1970s this problem had largely been overcome.

In summary it may be said that the real advantages of water transport are being
maintained or enhanced by modern techniques, especially by more powerful towboats
capable of hauling up to 50 barges carrying 80,000 tons; around-the-clock operation is
made possible with towboats refueled in midstream and barges attached or detached
while the tow proceeds along the river; at ports, automatic loaders cut turnaround time to
a minimum. It remains to be seen whether the resurgence of water transport so evident
through the 1960s and ’70s will be maintained. A major question mark is the barge-
carrying ship, analogous to railway piggybacking of truckloads, which promises to provide
through transport by barge from inland ports across oceans to foreign inland
destinations.

Ernest Albert John Davies

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